Three weeks after placing the high bid of $12.85 million to secure an exclusive, 30-day negotiating window with Korean slugger Byung Ho Park the Twins signed the 29-year-old first baseman to a four-year, $12 million contract that includes a $6.5 million team option for a fifth year. It's a very team-friendly deal and reports from Korea suggest that Park felt the Twins low-balled him during negotiations but basically just accepted anyway because he wants to play in MLB.

Certainly a total commitment of $24.85 million is not insignificant and there's still plenty of risk associated with Park because he's untested in America, but $6 million per season for a starting designated hitter/first baseman is well below the market rate. Last offseason Billy Butler signed a three-year, $30 million deal with the A's, Adam LaRoche signed a two-year, $25 million deal with the White Sox, and Kendrys Morales signed a two-year, $17 million deal with the Royals.

LaRoche was 35 years old and coming off a good but not great season, while Butler and Morales were both coming off career-worst years at ages 29 and 32 respectively. None of the three free agents were hot commodities and yet their their average annual salaries are $12.5 million, $10 million, and $8.5 million. You get the idea. Park could have turned down the Twins' offer and remained in Korea, but chose to start his MLB career without waiting another year.

Last offseason Jung Ho Kang became the first prominent hitter to go from the Korean Baseball Organization to MLB when the Pirates bid $5 million for his rights and signed him to a four-year, $11 million contract. Kang had a fantastic rookie year, hitting .287/.355/.461 in 126 games split between shortstop and third base, and the assumption was that his success would give American teams more confidence investing in Korean hitters and raise Park's price tag.

And it did, raising the posting fee from $5 million to $12.85 million, but Park's actual contract is for the same length and just $1 million more than Kang's deal while also including a fifth year of team control at a modest salary. If the Twins believe Park has star potential than this signing has a chance to be an incredible bargain and even if he turns into merely an average player they will still have dramatically underpaid.

Park is a two-time MVP winner in Korea and finished runner-up for the award this year, hitting .343/.436/.714 with 53 homers in 140 games. His high strikeout rate and the lack of previous KBO-to-MLB data points beyond Kang make any statistical projections even more of a guessing game than usual, but Park's raw power is universally regarded as outstanding and at $6 million per season for four years the risk taken by the Twins barely makes a dent in their payroll plans.

This year all MLB first basemen and designated hitters combined to bat .260 with a .335 on-base percentage and .445 slugging percentage, so Park need not duplicate his crazy KBO numbers to provide major value to team that has struggled to develop power hitters for decades. Ultimately the bar for evaluating Park's performance should be judged on that first base/DH baseline as well as who the Twins move to make room for him in the lineup.

There are two clear options. One is trading third basemanTrevor Plouffe and shifting Miguel Sano to third base to open DH for Park. In that scenario the Twins would downgrade defensively, but could upgrade offensively if Park tops Plouffe's modest .244/.307/.435 production and would get value back in the trade. Another option is keeping Plouffe, at least for now, and giving Sano regular action in the outfield following the trade of Aaron Hicksto the Yankees.

Other options exist and surely there will be unrealistic but vocal calls for the Twins make room for Park by parting ways with Joe Mauer despite $69 million remaining on his contract, but trading Plouffe or turning Sano into an outfielder are the realistic solutions. For any of those scenarios to work out well the Twins and their international scouts need to right about Park and that's a risk, but given his power potential and the surprisingly reasonable price tag it's one worth taking.

Note that the KBO MVP this year was Eric Thames, who posted a 1288 OPS this year, and a 1111 OPS in Korea in 2014, after washing out of MLB at 26. In two years of MLB, Thames hit .250/.296/.431, 96 OPS+, -0.1 fWAR, -0.6 rWAR.

Also, if the twins do move plouffe, I hope that they give mauer and Kepler some work at 3b. Sano is not the healthiest of guys and will need days off – it’d be nice to be able to have one of those two able to play an ok short-term 3B for those spells. Otherwise you’re looking at Santana/Nunez.

Judge Holden

Kepler throws Left-handed so he would not work at third.

D-Luxxx

Mauer is an ex-catcher who is going to be 33 years old. He’s had quite a bit of wear and tear on that body, and saying that he would be able to handle the outfield better than a guy 10 years younger than him is probably not very realistic.

RD

He’s been at first for 2 years, I think that’s plenty of time for the bumps and bruises to heal. Even at a supposedly ancient 33 he’ll move better for 120-130 games in right than a 260 lb Sano who isn’t going to get smaller, and who has a far more valuable bat. Besides, if there’s anyone in MLB who needs to add defensive value to justify their contract it’s Mauer.

Swanee62 & stillluvCarew

I love the Twinkie bloggers…N sorry for sucking up but Aaron is my favorite… I believe the Park signing was a fairly reasonable bet as was the Hicks trade…I’m hoping and assuming we won’t be reading anymore fantasy bedtime stories about our hometown hero’s signing a number 1 starter after the monopoly money contract Dave Dombrowski gave David Price & his agent!! You’d think he was the 2nd coming of Andy Pettite in October for that kinda change!!! I just like to see Berrios & Burdi sometime in the next decade…

John Baranick

So, I see we’re up to 4 catchers (none named Joe) on the roster now, with two more signed since we acquired the upsideable Mr. Murphy for Aaron Hicks. Thoughts?

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